Manual:Config

Save and Load

Manual

Keyboard Bindings

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Accessing the Config file

Accessing the Config file vegastrike.config

MacOS X users

There is now a Vega Strike Setup.app application included.

• Click to open.
  • If you do not have GTK and X11 installed then you will see a console interface with arrow keys.
  • If you have GTK and X11, then you will be presented with the window seen here.

If it does not work:

• ctrl-clicking or right-clicking the Vega Strike application
• choose Show Package Contents
• navigate to the Contents/Resources/data/ subdirectory.
• It's useful to drag an alias of this directory to your desktop while you're editing Vega Strike.

Linux/Unix users

Configuration is accessed in three ways:

• Opening vslauncher and selecting GAME SETTINGS; OR
• By directly opening the file vssetup;
• Direct editing of the vegastrike.config file.

Windows users

Configuration is accessed in three ways:

• Run the program Launcher.exe and select GAME SETTINGS; OR
• Run directly by opening the file setup.exe (Setup in the Start Menu);
• Direct editing of the vegastrike.config file.

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Basic Configuration Settings

Computer

• "<256 Mb RAM"
  • Max Single Sounds: 5; Max Total Sounds: 16
  • Systems retained in RAM: 2
  • Old systems data saved for reuse: 2
• "256 Mb RAM"
  • Max Single Sounds: 5; Max Total Sounds: 16
  • Systems retained in RAM: 2
  • Old systems data saved for reuse: 2
• "512 Mb RAM + 256 Mb Swap"
  • Max Single Sounds: 8; Max Total Sounds: 24
  • Systems retained in RAM: 2
  • Old systems data saved for reuse: 3
• "512 Mb RAM + 1Gb Swap"
  • Max Single Sounds: 12; Max Total Sounds: 32
  • Systems retained in RAM: 3
  • Old systems data saved for reuse: 4
• "1024 Mb RAM"
  • Max Single Sounds: 12; Max Total Sounds: 32
  • Systems retained in RAM: 3
  • Old systems data saved for reuse: 15

Optimized

• "Vertex Arrays" - Vertex (drawing) data is stored in an array (record). OpenGL need only call on the array, rather than execute every command in the array. In effect, OpenGL draws a starship each time one is needed - need five, draw five times.
• "Compiled Vertex Arrays" - Vertex data in an array can be locked down when it is expected to be used multiple times. In effect, OpenGL does not recompute the locked array data until all surfaces using that data have been drawn. OpenGL copies a starship only when the vertex array is compiled ... if more than one ship is on screen then it will only need to download it the first time to the card.
• "Display Lists" - This setting takes vertex commands and stores them for later execution - that is, define your drawing for multiple execution later. While vertex arrays can do this with a lesser amount of memory, display lists can operate faster. Graphics hardware may store display lists in dedicated memory, therefore increasing speed and efficiency, as well as offsetting the need for extra memory. So this setting will download a starship to the video card when the starship is drawn ... being much faster than copying it each time it is drawn. Recommend do not use this setting if you do not have a graphics hardware card.

Difficulty

• "Decelerated Gameplay"
  • Game Speed is .5 normal
  • Game Acceleration 1.0625x times normal
• "Relaxing Gameplay"
  • Game Speed is normal
  • Game Acceleration is normal
• "Moderate Gameplay"
  • Game Speed is 2 times normal
  • Game Acceleration is normal
• "Hasty Gameplay"
  • Game Speed is 4 times normal
  • Game Acceleration 0.9x normal
• "Insane Gameplay"
  • Game Speed is 8 times normal
  • Game Acceleration 0.96x normal
• "Impossible Gameplay"
  • Game Speed is 16 times normal
  • Game Acceleration 0.725x normal

Sound

• "No Sound" - No sound files played. This option is suggested when game performance is slow.
• "My Sound Only" - AI sound is deactivated; Only sound from you and your ship.
• "All Sound" - AI sound is activated
• "My Linux Sound" - AI sound is deactivated; Only sound from you and your ship.
• "All Linux Sound" - AI sound is activated

Music And Volume

The initial setting for your music volume. This setting can be adjusted ingame.

• "High Volume" - To give you loud, dramatic music!
• "Medium Volume" - For enjoying the music but without it being intrusive.
• "Low Volume" - Suitable setting for having music playing in the background.
• "Music Off" - Does not load soundserver to play music. This option is suggested when game performance is slow.

Video

This selection determines the level of visual detail Vega Strike projects to your monitor. These settings affect smoothness and rounding of objects, font style and anti-aliasing, sun halos, maximum texture size capability and whether reflection capability is available.

• "Extreme Detail" – Highest detailing available including full smoothing, halo, texturing and reflection capability available. Cockpits can be activated. Only high end video cards can operate at this setting without affecting performance.
• "Very High Detail" – The main difference is a large reduction in the level of visual detail.
• "High Detail" – Further reduction in visual detail, and reduced lighting capability.
• "Medium Detail" – Visual detail reduced with nebula fog disabled.
• "Low Detail" – Reduced visual detail with no background detailing (black only) and cockpits no longer available. All script is in reduced font size with no color differentiation. Light reflection is disabled with no haloing effects.
• "Retro Detail" – Lowest detail with no texture usage (wireframe only).

Resolution

This selection sets the Video Resolution for Vega Strike to use. Please note the larger the resolution, the greater the processing power is needed.

• "512x384" - xxx
• "640x480" - xxx
• "800x600" - xxx
• "1024x768" - xxx
• "1280x1024" - xxx
• "1600x1200" - xxx

Per Pixel Lighting

Definitions

• Separate Specular Color Vertex Lighting. Identifies the bright specular highlights that occur when light hits an object's surface and projects onto your ship's reflectivity analysis of the surface. In effect, you get a shine effect on an object that changes depending on where both the viewer and the sun is.
• Per Pixel Lighting Per-pixel lighting offers the ability to calculate lighting effects at the pixel level, greatly increasing precision and realism in a scene. In effect, making the lighting effects sharper, more defined. Per pixel specular lighting is best with a pixel shader - not truly necessary, but you suffer a big performance hit otherwise. GeForce3, Radeon 8500 and later video cards have this shader. Where game performance is slow or you have an older generation card, do not select an option with Per Pixel Lighting.
• Reflection Is an environment map (picture of background). This map is used where the visual mesh is declared to be specular and is projected onto your reflectivity analysis of the surface (your view). One result is that objects become capable of reflecting light and can act like a mirror surface.

Options

• "No Specular Lighting" - This option is suggested when game performance is slow.
  • separate specular color: no
  • per pixel lighting: no
  • reflection: no
• "Specular Lighting" -
  • separate specular color: yes
  • per pixel lighting: no
  • reflection: no
• "Specular Per Pixel Lighting" - Recommend a high end graphics card.
  • separate specular color: no
  • per pixel lighting: yes
  • reflection: no
• "Reflective Lighting" -
  • separate specular color: yes
  • per pixel lighting: no
  • reflection: yes
• "Reflective Per Pixel Lighting" - Recommend a high end graphics card.
  • separate specular color: yes
  • per pixel lighting: yes
  • reflection: yes

Color

This selection determines whether the game uses full 32 bit color or the more limited 16 bit color range. It also determines whether the game runs in full screen mode (uses your whole screen limited by your resolution setting) or is windowed (appears as a window in your monitor allowing access other programs).

• "32 bit Fullscreen" - 32 bit color viewed in a full screen. Note that eMac users might not be able to use this setting.
• "16 bit Fullscreen" - Reduced 16 bit color viewed in a full screen. Note that eMac users might not be able to use this setting.
• "32 bit Windowed" - 32 bit color with the game viewed in a window.
• "16 bit Windowed" - Reduced 16 bit color with the game viewed in a window.

Mouse

Definitions

This selection determines your mouse control during flight operations. A mouse with multiple buttons default to the button selection below.

• button 0 = Fire Weapon
• button 1 = Fire Missile
• button 2 = Afterburner
• button 3 = Target (cycle all available targets)
• button 4 = Target (target nearest targeting reticule)
• button 5 = Deceleration (decrease speed)
• button 6 = Perform a Shelton Slide
• button 7 = Acceleration (increase speed)
• button 8 = Cycle through guns
• button 9 = Cycle through missiles

Options

• "Mouse Warping" - "Drag to Steer". Your craft turns in the direction of the mouse movement, but the turn only continues while you mouse moves. To continue a turn, you need to continue scrolling your mouse in the desired direction.
• "Inv Mouse Warp" - inverts the direction of "Mouse Warping"
• "Mouse Glide" - Provides a 'ghost' targeting reticle that is movable around the screen. When moved away from center, your ship will turn in the direction of the reticle. Recenter reticle to cease turning. This option does not require mouse scrolling to continue a turn.
• "Inv Mouse Glide" - inverts the up/down direction of "Mouse Glide"
• "No Mouse" - No mouse flight.

Mouse Cursor

• "Software Cursor" - This should be the default setting. Cursor should appear at bases, and disappear in flight.
• "Hardware Cursor" - Select this option where the cursor is not appearing when at a base at all.

Joystick

Definitions

This selection configures your joystick for flight control. Joysticks can also be programmed by directly editing the vegastrike.config file – recommended for advanced use only. Joysticks with multiple buttons default to the button selection below.

• x axis = changes direction of pitch. Imagine holding your arms out sideways from your body and your hands holding on to something. You then swing your feet up and down. You are rotating on your arms (x axis).
• y asis = changes direction of yaw. Imagine standing upright, then turning in place to the left or right.
• z axis = changes direction of roll. Imagine standing upright, holding on to a pole above you running from forwards to backwards. You then swing from left to right. You are 'rolling' around the pole.
• button 0 = Fire Weapon
• button 1 = Afterburner
• button 2 = Fire Missile
• button 3 = Target (cycle all available targets)
• button 4 = Target (target nearest targeting reticle)
• button 5 = Deceleration (decrease speed)
• button 6 = Perform a Shelton Slide
• button 7 = Acceleration (increase speed)
• button 8 = Cycle through guns
• button 9 = Cycle through missiles

Options

• "No Joystick" - No joystick flight enabled.
• "2 Axis Joystick" Enables a standard 2 axis (x,y) joystick with two buttons (0,1).
• "2 Axis Joystick And Throttle" Enables movement in the x,y directions only. Currently, throttle control gives acceleration and deceleration, not speed control. Result: set speed is either maximum or zero.
• "3 Axis Joystick" Enables movement in all three directions.
• "3 Axis Joystick and Throttle" Enables movement in all three directions, plus the use of a throttle. Currently, throttle control gives acceleration and deceleration, not speed control. Result: set speed is either maximum or zero.
• "Joystick and Throttle Reversed" Reverses the setting of third axis and throttle.

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Advanced Configuration Settings

These settings must be adjusted by direct editing of the vegastrike config file.

Key Bindings - They are set between the <bindings> and the </bindings> tag.

• Keyboard Bindings
• Mouse Bindings
• Joystick Bindings

Note: (default) means that this value will be used if no reference is found in the vegastrike.config file.

"Physics" section

===collision_inertial_time=== ?

• 1.25 (default): float.

===game_speed=== Changed by setup program, depends on difficulty setting.

• 1 (default): float.

===game_speed_lying=== ?

• true:
• false (default):

"graphics" section

head_lag

• integer (default 10): head lag (in frames). When you turn, the cockpit is displayed as if you were overcomming the intertia of the turn. This value determines how much this 'overcomming' is in frames. Practically it affects how much the cockpit is shifted on-screen.

===pan_on_auto=== sets if there should be an camera switch + flyby on autopilot activation. No longer used ?

• true (default):
• false:

===shake_speed=== ?

• 50 (default): float.

===shake_reduction=== cockpit shake reduction amount.

• 8 (default): float.

===shove_camera_down=== ?

• .3 (default): float.

shield_texture

• shield.bmp (default): shield effect texture, expected to be in the textures directory. It is alpha blended, so blackness = transparency in-game.

reflectivity

• .2 (default): (0.0-1.0) default reflection level (1.0 = very shiny).

star_shine

• shine.ani (default): list of .ani files for a sun's flare effect separated by single spaces.

"hud" section

• radarType
  • WC (default) - Display two radars in the bottom screen. The left one is the front radar, the right one is the rear radar.
  • Elite - Display only one radar. Units are displayed with a dot and a vertical line. Units are projected on a horizontal plane (from your ship view). The dot is the position of the unit on that plane, and the height of the line is the height of the unit above/below that plane. Does not seem to work (on 3rd March 2004).
• min_target_box_size
  • .01 (default) - Minimum target box size.
• DrawTargettingBoxes
  • true (default) - Enable box display. Allow drawAllTargetBoxes, drawLineToTarget, drawLineToTargetsTarget, drawAlwaysITTS .
  • false - Does not display any target box or docking box.
• drawAllTargetBoxes
  • true - Display every units in boxes (not planets, jumps).
  • false (default) - Does not display units in boxes except the selected one.
• drawLineToTarget
  • true - Draw a line between your ship and the selected target. Allow drawLineToTargetsTarget. Does not seem to work (on 4rd March 2004).
  • false - Disable the line.
• drawLineToTargetsTarget
  • true - Disable the line.
  • false - Draw a line between your target and the target of your target. Does not seem to work (on 4th March 2004).
• drawLineToITTS
  • true - Draw ITTS line.
  • false (default) - FIXME
• drawAlwaysITTS
  • true - Force ITTS drawing.
  • false (default) - FIXME
• DrawTheirRelationColor - Determines the box color of the selected target.
  • true (default) - The box color corresponds to the target relation towards you.
  • false - The box color corresponds to your relation towars the target.
• drawNavSymbol - Does not seem to work (on 7th March 2004). FIXME
  • true - FIXME
  • false (default) - FIXME

"joystick" section

• mouse_cursor - This parameter is set to true when [Mouse glide] control is selected in setup.
  • true - In-flight control using [Mouse glide]. When enabled, warp_mouse must be set to false.
  • false (default) - Set when no mouse support is required or when warp_mouse is set to true.
• mouse_crosshair - Mouse cursor appearance when [Mouse glide] is selected (when mouse_cursor is true).
• crosshairs.spr (default) - If mouse_cursor is true, this file contains the image to be used as cursor. This file must be located in the ./sprites directory. See the .spr file format HowTo:Edit HUDs.
• warp_mouse This parameter is set to true when [Mouse warp] control is selected in setup.
  • true - In-flight control using [Mouse warp]. When enabled, mouse_cursor must be set to false.
  • false - Set when no mouse support is required or when mouse_cursor is set to true.
  • Note: if no in-flight mouse control is needed, both mouse_cursor and warp_mouse must be set to false.
• reverse_mouse_spr Used when [Mouse glide] control is selected in setup (see mouse_cursor).
  • true (default) - Invert vertical mouse axis.
  • false - Does not invert vertical mouse axis.
• draw_rendered_crosshairs
  • true (default) - Draw basic crosshairs using lines whatever the cockpit type is.
  • false - Use a sprite to draw the hud crosshairs. See cockpit file format HowTo:Edit HUDs. Each cockpit type might have its own crosshairs.
• draw_vdus_from_chase_cam
  • true - Display the hud when chase view is active.
  • false (default) - does not display the hud when chase view is active.
• draw_vdus_from_panning_cam
  • true - Display the hud when panning view is active.
  • false (default) - Does not display the hud when panning view is active.
• draw_vdus_from_target_cam
  • true - Display the hud when target view is active.
  • false (default) - does not display the hud when target view is active.

"cockpitaudio" section

This section contains names of wave files that happen on these events.

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Save and Load

Manual

Keyboard Bindings